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The best carrot cake for those of you on the Keto Diet. Low Carb Keto Carrot Cake Recipe – easy to make with simple ingredients, great for spring and Easter. Gluten-free, sugar-free, soft and moist carrot cake layers made with coconut and almond flour with sweet cream cheese frosting.
It is time to share with you one of my all time favorite cakes – keto carrot cake.
I’m a baker at heart and I’ve posted a lot of classic recipes for baked goods here.
But today’s recipe is different.
While I’ve been enjoying the low carb, no sugar diet, I’ve constantly been looking for ways to make some delicious guilt-free desserts.
These desserts are so much fun to make and don’t be surprised if you find out that they taste even better than their regular alternatives.
I have a delicious Foolproof Carrot Cake Recipe on the blog, that I shared years back.
If you aren’t into the keto diet, or simply don’t care about carbs and sugar, you may want to check it out.
It is one of my most popular recipes around Easter and I’ve tried to include as many tips and tricks as possible in the post.
You may also like this Carrot Cake Roll Recipe or this Coconut Cheesecake cake, they are perfect for Spring.
But gluten free baking is so much different. It has been fun so far!
While I know what can go wrong when baking regular cakes, with gluten free and low carb baked goods I’m still learning and implementing new techniques, so I have to test the recipes longer.
If I was making a regular carrot cake, I’d probably have 3-4 layers with thick layers of cream cheese frosting.
In this Low Carb Keto Carrot Cake Recipe I chose to only make two cake layers with a thick layer of sugar-free cream cheese frosting on top.
Two layers were more than enough. The cake is soft and flavorful and the frosting is perfectly sweet.
Using nuts in carrot cake?
Unlike some popular carrot cake recipes, I chose not to use walnuts in the cake layers, but instead I added some coconut and it enhanced the flavor and texture of the cake to perfection.
What ingredients do you need to make this Low Carb Keto Carrot Cake?
(I used no white sugar and dairy).
The cake layers are made with butter, but coconut oil could be substituted.
The recipe used both coconut flour and almond flour.
I’ve attempted to make it with coconut flour and the layers did not hold up well, so I don’t have an option for people allergic to almonds.
For the keto carrot cake layers I used – eggs, erythritol, shredded carrot, vanilla extract, coconut flour, almond flour, shredded coconut and baking powder.
For the sugar-free low-carb cream cheese cake (and cupcake) frosting I just used my favorite recipe, but instead of powdered sugar, I used powdered erythritol (or Swerve).
The weather this week has been a little warmer.
I’m very excited for Spring and summer. It is the perfect time for a light and gorgeous low carb dessert like this ketogenic carrot cake.
When is the best time to make Keto Carrot Cake?
I’ll definitely make this keto carrot cake for Easter, too!
It is also great for Mother’s Day, Passover or any upcoming party.
Low Carb Keto Carrot Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the low-carb, sugar-free cream cheese icing:
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup powdered Erythritol, I used Swerve
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, optional
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
For the keto carrot cake layers:
- 5 eggs, large
- 3/4 cup erythritol
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 14 tbsp butter, melted
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1 3/4 cup almond flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/4 cup shredded carrots
Instructions
For the low-carb, sugar-free cream cheese icing:
- Beat together the cream cheese and butter for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add sweetener and beat for 2-3 minutes intil incorporated.
- Add the vanilla and 1 tbsp heavy cream, beat to combine. Add more heavy cream and beat to combine, if the consistency of the icing, so it is not too thick, but stays fluffy.
For the keto carrot cake layers:
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line the bottoms of two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Grease over the parchment and the sides of the pans. Set a side.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the eggs and erythritol for 5 minutes on medium-high speed, until fluffy. Add vanilla extract.
- In a bowl, sift together the coconut flour, almond flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture.
- Add the coconut, stir to combine. Add carrots, mix to combine.
- Add the melted butter at the end, mix to incorporate.
- Divide the batter between both pans. Bake for 30-3 minutes, until the tops are set and toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool inside the pans for 10-15 minutes, then carefully invert onto a cooling rack. Let them cool completely.
To Assemble:
- If the cake tops are uneven, use a serrated knife to level them.
- Place one cake layer on a platter. Carefully spread 1/2 of the icing over it. Top with the second cake layer. Spread the remaining frosting on top. I left this keto carrot cake naked, but you can spread some frosting on the sides of it if you'd like. Top with shredded coconut (optional).
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, then slice and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More Keto Cakes:
Can I substitute the Ertyhritol with granulated Splenda?
Yes, you can, but I don’t know how much Splenda equals the amount of erythritol I used. Please do your research on conversion.
This recipie is delish ive made it twice now. Its my go to cake recipe. I would highly recommend it. Thank you
Great! Glad you liked it!
Thank you for this! Made it today and I’m so amazed at how good it is. Perfect texture! I’m usually not a big fan of keto sweet things, but this is a definite exception!Â
Hi Sarah, thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it! I like cooking Keto recipes, but my passion are desserts. Definitely trying to create cakes and sweet treats that taste good and make us (people on low-carb diet) not miss the real sugary cakes from the bakery 🙂
Can I use ghee on this instead of butter? If I can what is the ratio?
Hi Beth, I rarely use ghee and definitely haven’t used it in cakes. So while I think you can use it, I have no idea what ratio. Maybe 1:1?
Could this be made into cup cakes instead of a cake? If so, would the nutritional info change?Â
It could, but I have not done is so I don’t know how many mini cakes, how long to bake and what the nutritional info will be. I’ll have to test it to give accurate information.
How does this compare to the taste of the real sugar/flour version?
No, it is not as moist, but it does have a nice carrot flavor.
Can I Â color and decorate with this icing?
This is more like a Cream Cheese Frosting. Not like Royal Icing. But, yes you can add coloring and use it for decorating.
Can I color and decorate with this icing?
Hi Mira! Thanks for posting this recipe. I can’t wait to try your other keto recipes!
My cake came out extremely dry & I think it may have something to do with my substitutions or techniques. I should mention, the flavor of my cake was amazing & the frosting was perfect.
I substituted butter for margarine. Also, I couldn’t find Swerve/erythritol in my Walmart, so I used Splenda.. Which looks like powder, but as I’m reading the bag it is granulated. I think this could be my error. I kept the portions the same, as I used a conversion chart that recommended it.
The finally thing I think I did wrong is hand beat/mix. I don’t have a stand mixer or any appliance tools, so I just used an egg beater & spoon to mix everything. Other than that, I followed the directions exactly.
I would love to re-try this cake, was wondering if you could point me to my major errors.
Thanks again xx
Hi Meghan, so sorry that the cake did not turn the way mine did. Here are my thoughts:
1. I’ve never used margarine in baking, so I don’t know what happened there, next time you can use coconut oil or even olive oil (might have different taste). I think margarine might have made it too dry.
2. Splenda is generally sweeter than erythritol and it also might have dried the cake too much. If the batter was too thick, you can add some almond milk (up tp 1/4 cup) to the batter to thin it.
3. I don’t think hand mixing is an issue in this recipe. This should not be a problem.
4. Also sometimes moisture in carrots varies, some are very dry and others have more liquid, but I don’t think this should be an issue.
5. Are you using a convection or regular oven? You may want to bake for 5 minutes less than I recommended if your oven is too hot.
Please let me know if any other questions 🙂
Cant wait to try your recipe! Can I use a hand mixer in place of a stand?
Hi Ann,
Yes, hand mixer will work fine. Let me know how it turns!
Thanks! And will do!